Disappointing from England, they can play better than that! But as in every game of the World Cup, too many handling errors and pens and not enough clear leadership. France played well but not their best.

Wales v Ireland, what a match, Ireland threw everything at Wales and the Dragon didn't budge! Brillant match and mouthwatering semi next week, turned Welsh for the rest of the tournament!

Well that was disappointing. Had so much ball and so many chances in the 2nd half and I really thought we were going to score again and come back after the 2nd try. Just left too much to do. That moment in the last 10 minutes when Flood ran away from the ruck and someone passed it to him when he wasn't looking completely summed us up.

Really stood out watching it live that we had no structure and no idea what to do. The only plan seemed to be give to Tuilagi to run head down into a defender. He's so strong that he drags 3 defenders to him so if only he would pass it wide Asthon would have space to run into. Other thing that stood out was the patheticness of our passing. When we pass it wide it is high and floaty and takes half an hour to get to the winger by which time he has 3 defenders on him and gets monstered. When the All Blacks pass it wide it's flat and like a bullet and the winger is into space before the defence has a chance to react.

Also we never seem to have any support players. Any time there's a little break or someone in space, there's no backup. Teams like the All Blacks or even France today always seem to have more players on the pitch because every time someone gets into space they have someone outside them so it's always 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 etc.

Still, we had enough chances in the 2nd half, and even after the first half hour that we should really have won. Just gave ourselves too much to do with those 2 soft tries early on.

Looks like an NZ-France rematch of the 1987 final at Eden Park. Hope for a South Africa win tomorrow because that's the only possible way I can see NZ not winning it. There's no way they'll lose to Australia here and as great as it would be, there's no way you can see Wales offering any sort of challenge. France maybe could in the final with the amount of pressure that would be on NZ and the history of NZ-France matches in knockout games and France have players who have been there in this sort of occasion (which is the reason they'll beat Wales next week). But really, a semi final against South Africa is the only possible way I could see NZ losing.

Really would make my decade if they lost to Argentina tomorrow though!

Looking back, we had 2 kickers and I don't think either of them made one single attacking kick in the game. I don't remember Wilkinson or Flood once being given a chance to kick for the corner. For some reason Youngs hoofed an up and under every single time we were in our half instead of passing to Jonny or Flood for a proper kick. It mean France got the ball back in play and were charging into our half again. Nothing we did made any sense at all in that game.

Well that was disappointing. Had so much ball and so many chances in the 2nd half and I really thought we were going to score again and come back after the 2nd try. Just left too much to do. That moment in the last 10 minutes when Flood ran away from the ruck and someone passed it to him when he wasn't looking completely summed us up.

Really stood out watching it live that we had no structure and no idea what to do. The only plan seemed to be give to Tuilagi to run head down into a defender. He's so strong that he drags 3 defenders to him so if only he would pass it wide Asthon would have space to run into. Other thing that stood out was the patheticness of our passing. When we pass it wide it is high and floaty and takes half an hour to get to the winger by which time he has 3 defenders on him and gets monstered. When the All Blacks pass it wide it's flat and like a bullet and the winger is into space before the defence has a chance to react.

Also we never seem to have any support players. Any time there's a little break or someone in space, there's no backup. Teams like the All Blacks or even France today always seem to have more players on the pitch because every time someone gets into space they have someone outside them so it's always 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 etc.

Still, we had enough chances in the 2nd half, and even after the first half hour that we should really have won. Just gave ourselves too much to do with those 2 soft tries early on.

Looks like an NZ-France rematch of the 1987 final at Eden Park. Hope for a South Africa win tomorrow because that's the only possible way I can see NZ not winning it. There's no way they'll lose to Australia here and as great as it would be, there's no way you can see Wales offering any sort of challenge. France maybe could in the final with the amount of pressure that would be on NZ and the history of NZ-France matches in knockout games and France have players who have been there in this sort of occasion (which is the reason they'll beat Wales next week). But really, a semi final against South Africa is the only possible way I could see NZ losing.

Really would make my decade if they lost to Argentina tomorrow though!

Excellent write up Alex. I feel for you, having travelled up from Wellington. Could have been so very different but not this time. I wish the Welsh team every luck.

Very disappointing but I am still glad I went. Just don't understand why we chose to run the ball all day and hoof up and unders when we needed to clear instead of sticking to the formula that worked through the 6 Nations and through the tough group matches. Shouldn't have listened to people complaining about "boring rugby" and kept trying to play "winning rugby."

On the bright side I don't have to spend another load of money coming back for the semi final next weekend!

Also I can confirm what I said after the Argentina-Scotland game. If you go to rugby, sit at one of the ends and not on the side because it is infinitely more enjoyable. The side is best for football but terrible for rugby - you can't see the rucks or where the passes are going or where the gaps are or anything and you end up watching the screen the whole time. From the end you can see the breakdowns, you can see the passes and the gaps and you can just see the whole field and what's happening in the game. You can see the direction of kicks and where overlaps are and you can even tell when goalkicks have gone over which you usually can't from side on. Only thing you have trouble with from behind is the depth of the kicks in play.